Friday, May 28, 2010

Earlier in this blog, the CSN team celebrated the addition of the 7.5 volumed rhombic triacontahedron (RT) to our little zoo of inter-transforming polyhedra.

Most of our polyhedra are isotoxal, to find an arcane term for ya. Any edge may be transformed into any other by a series of rotations.

The 7.5 RT is measured as such relative to a tetrahedron of edges 2, representing the 2 unit radii of spheres in a closest packing arrangement.

The yellow rhombic dodecahedron (RD) depicted above, of volume 6, may serve as a casement for one of these spheres.

Its green face diagonals define an octahedron of volume 4, while its blue short face diagonals define a cube of volume 3.

The outermost cube, in consisting of 8x the inner cube, has a volume of 24 and is what we call the 2-frequency cube in Synergetics.

Synergetics, a philosophy (sometimes categorized as Neoplatonic), is a source for many of our streaming spatial geometry animations.

The above graphic was developed by David Koski using vZome, a virtual version of Zome.

As of 2010, we had few commercial outlets for these streaming mathcasts.

The powers that be were (on average) slow to relay this new kind of philanthropic programming through their networks, to hungry scholars around the world.

Two other RTs you might easily encounter in perusing our mathcasts: the RT of volume 5, with radius 0.9995, so very close to unit radius; the RT of volume 15 * root2(2), with edges 2.

Again, don't expect to find these volume numbers in any 2010 textbook. Tetravolume accounting has not been accepted by the mainstream. CSN traffics in esoterica, simply by virtue of the radical nature of its principal sources of content.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I was alerted to the above video by John Driscoll today, as we met at Lyrik. We discussed the Sesame Street model as an inspiration for hypertoons, long-running reveries that explore a database of video clips, stitching them together in real time, and/or asynchronously.

Programmers may need to (or wish to) insert local content, interrupting a feed from some distant source. The Shop's caretakers having mixing powers i.e. editing responsibilities. What's going on in the neighborhood? Curious customers want to know.

CSN is not about surrendering local control to some imperial center.

Given this blog is "prefrequency" in the sense that we're sketching an open source business model, providing the prior art, I'm OK with showcasing "non-commercial use" segments.

When syndicating for the CSN network itself, compensating artists will not be a verboten concept, even though we're a philanthropic organization, a charity, a worthy cause ourselves.

As the chief marketing officer (CMO), I'm not opposed to being rewarded for my architecture (new circuit designs for motherboard Earth), nor for my hypertoons concept. My thanks to Richard Hawkins for early encouragement along these lines (I entered a contest to win a Sun workstation, didn't win).

Dr. Nick has been educating me about the work of Mark Lakeland, local activist. The intersection known as Sunnyside Piazza is due for repairs. City Repair has scheduled an event for May 29th. This intersection is not far from Duke's Landing. Expect some photographs.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Glenn (CSO) was perturbed by a petitioner in front of Fred Meyers (these days Kroger) today.

The petition was to help public schools, he was told, but the fine print revealed the plan was to stick a casino in some abandoned school, thanks to some amendment to the state constitution.

There seemed to be a lack of truth in advertising in this approach.

This triggered more discussion of the CSN model and the degree of state regulation that might be needed, in Kerala or wherever.

In a USA context, I can imagine vendors stipulating and/or designating a set of recipients (charities, worthy causes) as a way of positioning their own brands. Some of the obscure beer companies might take greater risks, with the causes they might support, leading to loyal followings among some specialized breeds of game player.

Not everyone supports Greenpeace, or even this or that religious group.

Could a local temple, synagogue, church, mosque and/or meetinghouse benefit from CSN infrastructure? The current model wouldn't forbid it, but local regulations and community standards well might. That's the thing about CSN: it might be more malleable than you think, or than your neighborhood might permit.

The basic model has vendor payloads, already tax deducted (if that notion is applicable), and heading to the CSN pool.

When you boot a game, thanks to some purchase of product X, you have possible objectives A, B, C. Choose your mission and be a star.

If you're quite new at the game or just practicing and score really low (perhaps intentionally), most if not all of the payload returns to the pool, available to future players (perhaps yourself).

If you advance through several levels, the causes you're wanting to benefit will be more highly compensated.

When you cross a pretty high threshold, then the vendor takes notice and celebrates your achievements with offers of branding on your Facebook account or wherever you're storing victories.

The last wrinkle is somewhat subtle. We don't want vendors begrudging players scoring high and committing payloads to chosen charities.

That's because these are charities the vendor set out to support, an original purpose of CSN being to benefit worthy causes.

In between, the CSN circuitry permits public participation in exchange for vendor goods and services, combined with support for the venue (the shop nets a percent for its operating budget).

One reward for taking an indirect route like this is the valuable psychometrics coming back from the field. You learn more about your customers, in aggregate or by studying their public-facing accounts (as would anyone). That helps you fine tune. Feedback is valuable.

Coffee shops will distinguish themselves by what assortment of vendors they've got, and therefore what beneficial purposes their games might support.

Not every vendor wants to spend time researching causes or lending its name directly to NGOs. In these cases, the Shop itself may be selected for the company it keeps. A vendor seeks trusted peers in the philanthropy business.

The model actually presumes give and take, cues from the field, shifting positions. When a vendor gets feedback, perhaps negative, for not supporting a specific cause, that's not a crisis or break in the system. That's what psychometrics are for: to give the Shops a clearer picture of where the customer base is at, vis-a-vis this or that issue of the day.

How much goes for product placement in the sense of advertising is a part of the equations.

As someone who looks at marketing, I like to send my own logos across sometimes, adding my brands to segments I'm proud to be associated with. The idea of branding, of logos, does not offend me, though a particular logo or brand well might.

In your typical casino, the game is players against the house, with odds tipped towards the house. One may also play other customers in some games.

I'm actually not posing as a casino expert.

If you yourself are a worthy cause, i.e. you have the ability to play for credits to yourself, then the game has that casino-like flavor. On the other hand, if you have some control over where your losings go, once they become part of the casino's power to invest, then you have a different angle, perhaps that of a tribal elder.

In the CSN model, you invest your own funds through purchases of goods and services coming from vendors.

If the good or service is the game itself, rather than a perk for having put credit towards a class or course, then this too is more like casino gambling, where drinks and food may be off to the side and free of charge, courtesy of the management as it were.

These being Coffee Shops, the idea of procurement, with games more optional than the whole point, takes us away from a strict casino model.

However, if "the self" is a possible beneficiary, then perhaps some state regulations apply (depends on the state). Perhaps we're in Python Nation? What then?

My inclination would be to see some CSN facilities as non-profit schools, such that "credits to self" were seen as credits to a student working for privileges, access, opportunities to practice. Faculty are students somewhat more advanced along some specific path. The work/study model (of a scenario) still applies.

Some of these courses may be hard work, quite demanding. It stands to reason that one might find compensation of various kinds, and not simply for "being lucky" in some game of chance.

However, given the planned-for relaxed atmosphere, a more strictly controlled test-taking center might be required for some parts of the schooling. Other environments besides that of a Coffee Shop will be a encountered -- a truism.

Not all kinds of study are possible within some CSN venue.

On the contrary, NGOs recruiting personnel through CSN education programs will be showing or simulating environments outside the Coffee Shops domain.

This is what it means to prepare for assignments: you may study in a CSN venue, but you're preparing to do something else... the possibilities are myriad.

Friday, May 14, 2010

I'm with Patrick of Portland Energy Strategies, yakking about what used to be Acme (see below). LinZ (handle) is a mini-Hubble when it comes to FreeCycle pianos, tracking 'em as if they were guide stars. I joined her in a rescue the other day, a perfectly good upright. How good was it when we were done with it though? Trae and I flipped her on her back to add wheels, and all her chords sounded when we did that. An expert I talked to said probably no big deal, he'd done worse. We had a legit piano dolly and everything, pictures in Photostream.

That same place with the piano (not Acme) is changing color again. Trae wants to continue a cross-hatching motif to signify his ownership of both buildings. Beyond that, he's like some fin de siecle painter, posing the question "why just one trim color?" He's settled on about four shades of turquoise, to contrast with the four shades of brown. GS and I interviewed him this morning while on some random walk (we're both Wanderers). Duke (the dog / owner) is doing better.

Speaking of dogs, the dog Manga in Logicomix out of Athens is not named for the genre, as Manga is also a Greek word meaning something like "jolly good fellow" -- or something.

The graphic novel I'm referring to is about the philosophy of mathematics in an historical context, exactly the kind of thing I promulgate on the Math Forum. This is Cult of Athena literature for sure, good table top reading (thumbs up, recommended) if you're collecting for your CSN shop.

One of the artists on the Logicomix team had experience with Tintin and Babar comix, both childhood influences. I sometimes refer to Don W. as "Captain Haddock" borrowing from the Tintin cast.

I've been out of touch with CHR etc., as we're not seeing a lot of philosophical ferment in the departments yet. University coffee shops will be streaming the content, but not until they see the relevance. OLPC commercials at the MIT Student Union? What could those have to do with 1, 12, 42, 92...? A puzzling question I realize.